In the above example you can see the rough 3D mesh, then next to it my front view render of the same model. In Photoshop I place the rendering (1) at the bottom of my Layers stack and start building up from there. Next, I start to draw out more details in black & white (2) using the render as a guide. I try to soften the hard edges and deepen some of the shadows. Next, I tint the black & white drawing (3) with just enough color to add interest to the surface. Lastly, I place a Multiply layer with a strong granite texture over the top of the entire image (4). I then play with the opacity percentage of the layer to allow the under drawing and texture to come through while remaining influenced by the organic texture on top. I also take the time to really push the shadows to suggest more depth than is actually built into the model itself.
The mesh has a very loose and theatrical quality to it. There is no reason to go photo realistic, and sometimes just suggesting detail is more than enough to get your point across. ~Don
PS - You might notice that the final model is a little less symmetrical than the rough model. I often distort, taper, or even squash my models after they are textured to give them a less "mathematical" appearance.
12 comments:
It's dead useful seeing the steps the pros go through, I've recently started using a similar process myself and it really does improve perceived depth in textures.
Hey Hex, Matt and I have been working for the last several months on over 80 new tutorials for IMVU, with a ton more tips and techniques. These should be up on the Creators site in June, so keep an eye out for them. We will also start posting even more tips here on the Blog. Thanks for your comments... you are the first. ~Don
Nice! Is that in the ctalog?
Very nice so far. I think people want more of these kind of tutorials on different ways to add details to their textures. Many people need them to help learn the tools of their program. -MarniDawg
Many thanks for posting this....however, I'd like to see more detail with regards to what you did during each step to create those effects. Many many dev's have no or little previous artistic experience & seeing a projet like that borken down in great detail would be a major help in learning necessary skills. If translations into various programs were also available that would be perfect :)
I agree with Bou, it would be nice to see more detail on how the texture were created
Great feedback, bou et al. With our TROVES of knowledge (;p), it is sometimes hard to know at what level of granularity a tutorial should written. It is really helpful to know that some folks would like some points on the finer details. Perhaps that could be a theme throughout this blog. ie - we could start with a high level project and then, with your help and feedback, we can dig into the nuances of how it was built.
Thanks for all the comments! The tutorials we have been writing (stay tuned) go into much finer detail regarding every step to getting your work into the IMVU catalog, but we could focus on even more specific tips on this Blog. Keep the comments coming and we will work to add more in-depth info as well continue posting.
When writing lesson plans for training staff way back when, I always broke the complete task down into it's individual steps & detailed them in a coherent non-patronising manner. I've since applied that philosophy to teaching children & writing tuts on IMVU & it works well. hopefully this'll help you to help us :)
Matt & I have spent the last several months writing in-depth tutorials that follow many of the steps you suggest. These will be released on the IMVU Creator site shortly. For the Blog we are not attempting to recreate the step-by step process but highlight some of the work we are doing and lessons we are learning along the way. The new tutorials will also allow fellow developers to write their own tutorials which will be hosted on the IMVU servers. In the meantime, if you have tutorials to share we would love to point developers to them.
Heard & understood & I look forward to seeing this new feature of the site up & running....as for my tuts, without wishing to be mean, I'd prefer to hold off until you release so I can have a good read of the terms before I make a decision whether to share or not...not personal, just my natural scpticism kicking in
if the texture is well maped (and Im sure its true in this case) you can also bake you shadow using the render to texture, I often provide this kind of "grayscale" textures instead of color coder textures on my derivables products
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